Aircrafts are continuously exposed to varying climatic conditions and in this regard, ice accretion is a threatening event. Ice accretion is known to cause serious perturbations to the flying conditions due to ice formations on aerodynamic surfaces of aircraft.
Ice accretion on aircrafts is a very complex physical process. The selection of an adequate ice rejection technique is thus a difficult task. The technique to be selected must be made compatible with a number of constraints comprising material properties, fatigue, dynamic deformation while in flight, repairing and servicing constraints, durability etc, just to name a few.
One of the issues is the growing need for fuel consumption reductions. Especially when using electromechanical de-icing systems (EMEDS) also the power output for driving the de-icing system is an issue and it is desirable to minimize the peak power output for the electro-mechanical de-icing system.
Electromechanical de-icing systems use current induced magnetic effects that result either in surface vibrations or strong pulses to effect de-icing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,435 relates to a de-icing system that uses electromagnetic actuators mounted within the airfoil of an aircraft to effect de-icing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,815 describes a de-icer module using a bank of capacitors.